Sister Cecilia Wood Maryknoll Sister for 77 Years Dies

Maryknoll, NY: Maryknoll Sister, Sr. Cecilia Wood M.M., died on August 17, 2017 at Our Lady of Victory Training Center, Davao City, Philippines.  She was 95 years old and had been a Maryknoll Sister for 77 years.

Cecilia was born in Seattle, Washington on September 17, 1921 to Catherine (Kelly) Wood and Stephen J. Wood.  She had four brothers, Francis, John, James, and Stephen.   Her parents and brothers Francis and John have predeceased her.

Cecilia graduated from Holy Names Academy, Seattle, WA in 1939. She entered the Maryknoll Sisters Congregation from St. John’s Parish, Seattle, (now St. Joseph’s), in the Diocese of Seattle, on December 7, 1939 at the Maryknoll Sisters Center in Ossining, NY.  She made her First Profession of Vows on June 30, 1942 and her Final Profession of Vows on June 30, 1945, both at the Maryknoll Sisters Center.

From 1941 to 1945, she studied at Maryknoll Teachers College in Maryknoll, NY and earned a Bachelor of Education Degree; she was then assigned that same year to Kalihi, Hawaii.  In 1946 she was assigned to the Philippines where she taught at various Maryknoll elementary and high schools until 1962.  She returned to the United States and attended St. Louis University in St. Louis, MO earning her Masters in Science Research Degree and a Ph.D. in Biology-Cancer Research in 1968. Sister Cecilia was then assigned to teach at Mary Rogers College, in Maryknoll, NY from 1968 to 1971 and then taught at Columbia University School of Medicine in NYC from 1970 to 1972. That same year she continued her medical studies at the Medical College of Pennsylvania and obtained her M.D. in 1974. Sister Cecilia then did a medical internship from 1974 – 1975 at Grasslands Hospital, (now Westchester Medical Center) in Valhalla, NY.  The University of the State of New York issued her License to practice medicine.  Sister Cecilia completed her Residency in Internal Medicine at the Catholic Medical Center of Brooklyn and Queens, NY from 1975 – 1977.

Sister Cecilia returned to the Philippines in 1977 where she served on the faculty of the Davao Medical School from 1978 – 1983, while at the same time serving in Muslim villages and in local clinics of Davao City and environs with particular attention to disabled youth in a paraplegic center. In 1983, Our Lady of Victory Training Center was founded in Davao City and Sister Cecilia served as Director and Practicing Physician from 1989 to 2010; during that time she also supported and guided ten college students from Myanmar. Sister Cecilia retired in the Philippines in 2011 where she remained until her death.

A Memorial Mass will be held in the Annunciation Chapel at the Maryknoll Sisters Center in Maryknoll, NY on Friday, August 25, 2017 at 11:00AM 

Sister Cecilia will be buried in the Philippines in the Maryknoll Sisters Mausoleum on the Miriam College Campus.

Sister_Cecilia_Wood-Memorial_Video_1080p from Maryknoll Sisters on Vimeo.